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Is TPP Dead? What does Hillary think?

After the U.S. House of Representatives voted last Friday to kill "fast-track" to give Obama authorization to pass a major and secretive trade agreement, presidential contender Hillary Clinton may yet have another opportunity to give the American people her open and honest opinion on the TPP trade agreement. Or she may (again) take a "wait-and-see" approach to test the winds of public opinion. Or, to appease her corporate backers, she may just say nothing at all — or she might say something with a wink and a nod to her biggest campaign donors.

"Anyone who has read the text of the [TPP] agreement could be jailed for disclosing its contents ... So-called “cleared advisors” like me are prohibited from sharing publicly the criticisms we’ve lodged about specific proposals and approaches ... The law prohibits us from talking about the specifics of what we’ve seen ... Only portions of the text have been provided, to be read under the watchful eye of a USTR official ... We have to travel to certain government facilities and sign in to read the materials. Even then, the administration determines what we can and cannot review and, often, they provide carefully edited summaries rather than the actual underlying text ... At last count, there were more than 600 cleared advisors. The vast majority of them represent business interests."

A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton had said: “She will be watching closely to see what is being done to crack down on currency manipulation, improve labor rights, protect the environment and health, promote transparency and open new opportunities for our small businesses to export overseas. As she warned in her book Hard Choices, we shouldn’t be giving special rights to corporations at the expense of workers and consumers."

So after plugging Hillary's book, are the American people to assume than someone who is running for the President of the United States doesn't even know the details of a major trade deal that is currently being debated — a trade deal encompassing 40% of the global economy? All we know so far about Hillary's opinion on TPP is that "trade is good". But all other presidential contenders (on BOTH sides of the political aisle) have already weighed in on the issue.

13 "free traitors" (Democrats in the Senate) had already voted for the pro-business/anti-worker TPP trade deal before it had went to the House for a vote last week (The 13 are listed here at the end of this post). After the Senate vote, but prior to the first vote in the House, GOP leaders had believed they already had enough Republican votes to give Obama "fast-track" (TPA) for trade agreements. This may be the one and only issue the GOP and the president have ever agreed on over the past 6 years.

Then last Thursday another 28 more Democratic "free traitors" in the House voted to fast-track TPP. The Hill had reported that fast-track passed in the House on a 217-212 vote, but the Huffington Post had reported a vote of 219 to 211, which appears to be the correct tally.

According to The Hill, 8 of these 28 Democrats had waited until the last minute to vote because they didn't want to go on the record for voting in favor of fast-track; but towards the end of the vote (when they realized it wouldn’t pass without their votes), it was only THEN did they vote to save TPP at this stage. According to The Hill, those 8 were:

Now it becomes a bit more confusing. Last Friday Obama lost the key vote for TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance), which is a funding measure that pays to help re-train workers whose jobs are lost due to these trade deals. To give Obama fast-track (TPA) to negotiate trade agreements (such as TPP) Congress would have also needed to pass TAA. So knowing that killing TAA would also kill TPA, Democrats voted against TAA for a final House vote of 302 to 126 — and for the time being, ultimately stalled the TPP trade agreement. (The 40 Democrats who voted for Obama to get TAA/TPA/TPP passed are listed here at the bottom of this post.)

Editor's Note -- My first question: Why would some Democrats in the House vote for fast-track (TPA) to enable TPP one day (on Thursday), but then vote against TAA to kill TPP the very next day (on Friday)? This is where I was confused. The way it was explained was, the TAA measure that just failed in the House on Friday was included in the fast-track bill in a bid to win Democratic support. But it attracted opposition because funding for the TAA program was seen as too low — and also because earlier the Senate decided to pay for it in part by cutting $700 million from Medicare. (A post at the National Journal might better explain.)

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) said the TAA bill included "substantially less funding than the administration has said was essential to protect those who lose their jobs through expanded trade."

Editor's Note -- Which brings me to my next question: If these trade agreements were supposed to protect current jobs from being offshored to foreign countries, thereby displacing more American workers, then why would we even need TAA to re-train workers who might otherwise lose jobs due to any trade deal? According to Obama, his congressional supporters and his corporate backers, they have repeatedly claimed that TPP was supposed to save domestic jobs and create more jobs in America with expanded trade. So if we won't lose more jobs with TPP, then why would we need cut Medicare by $700 million to fund TAA if more jobs won't be lost and/or offshored? Did you get all that?

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said "Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers, they don't live in this country. So if we want to create more jobs in America, we've got to make more things here in America, and send them over there."

Mister Ryan would be right — if that were true — but that's not what American-based multinational tax-dodging corporations have been doing. Instead, they make stuff over there (i.e. China), creating more jobs over there, and then export their stuff over here, driving up our trade deficit and putting Americans out of work. A spokesman for Paul Ryan said the GOP leadership had plans to bring up TAA for another vote on Tuesday, but that this time, there would not be another vote on TPA. As the Huffington Post notes:

Passing fast-track [TPA] gives hope to Obama, but if Democrats block TAA again on Tuesday, it will further delay his agenda from moving forward. And if Democrats do that, they run the risk of Republicans pushing through a fast-track bill without it, essentially killing the job assistance program. [Getting the TTP trade deal passed is their primary goal, and funding for re-training displaced workers is only consequential for them.]

Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), while denouncing unions' arguments against Obama's trade agenda, had compared the unions' work to the infamous Nazi propaganda minister for the Third Reich: "Goebbels would be very proud of them."

Editor's Note: According to The New Republic, a new WikiLeaks report exposes TPP (the Asian trade agreement that's currently being debated) as only the tip of a very huge iceberg. There's also the TTIP, which would bind the two biggest economies in the world (the U.S. and European Union). But the largest of all the trade agreements is also the least known — the 51-nation TiSA. The TPP was described as NAFTA on steroids. By comparison, the TTIP would be thermonuclear. [Whereas TiSA might create a new corporate world order.]

Why has Hillary Clinton been so silent on TPP?

According to another post at the Hill, in her first memoir (Living History, published in 2003), Hillary Clinton called NAFTA one of "Bill’s successes." Yet in a presidential debate during her first White House run in 2008, she declared, "I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning." And back in 2012, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton praised the framework for the TPP as setting "the gold standard in trade agreements." Now she's saying absolutely nothing about TPP, only that she's "for free trade".

Charles Chamberlain, the executive director of Democracy for America, says: “Not being clear on where you stand [on TPP] is problematic. For Hillary Clinton specifically, here is someone who has a history of supporting bad trade deals in the past.” Before a recent brief press conference, Hillary Clinton made remarks distancing herself from the TPP trade deal that Obama is pushing, one that she supported while serving in his cabinet. Hillary Clinton had been conspicuously silent on Congress' imminent vote on the trade promotion authority (TPA) bill that would allow President Obama to move forward with a big Pacific Rim trade agreement (TPP) and other trade deals such as TTIP and TiSA.

As Congress was preparing to vote on granting President Obama trade promotion authority and fast-tracking the controversial TPP trade agreement, Adam Hersh (an economist at the Roosevelt Institute) wrote at The Hill that TPP is about “rewriting the rules of the global economy to favor big businesses at the expense of almost everyone else.” Hersh had also participated in a press conference call that included economist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich to explain their opposition to the deal.

Senator Bernie Sanders (who is also running for President) and progressive Democrats — along with tea party Republicans — oppose both the "fast track" legislation and the trade deal. Here's Bernie Sanders' take on Hillary Clinton's position on the TPP trade deal: "If she's against this, we need her to speak out, right now. Right now. Be for it or against it, but I don't understand how on an issue of such huge consequence you don't have an opinion. My own very strong view is that when you try to understand why the middle-class in this country is disappearing, trade has got to be one of the issues you look at for an explanation."

Prior to Hillary's speech at Roosevelt Island last Saturday, VOX wrote, "The President she will identify herself with won't be her husband, Bill Clinton, or either of the presidents who appointed her to posts in their administrations — Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter. Instead, she will reach back through the generations to the Democrat who wins the highest marks from political scientists, Franklin Delano Roosevelt."

Hillary had given her speech in the presence of a giant bust of FDR (a progressive Democrat), on a tiny island off the affluent Upper East Side of Manhattan. But she gave very little policy substance while at Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island. Even though Robert Reich had previously asked her, Hillary never once mentioned the proposed TPP trade deal. Instead, she spoke in broad strokes about inequality and her own story to make the case that she’s on the side of the middle-class. Specifically, here's all she had to say about trade in general:

"Advances in technology and the rise of global trade have created whole new areas of economic activity and opened new markets for our exports, but they have also displaced jobs and undercut wages for millions of Americans."

She has refused to make any solid stance on fast-track, or on any pending trade deals (or those in the past), but only to say "trade is good". Hillary's senior spokeswoman repeatedly refused to answer questions from CNN about whether she supports or opposes the TPP legislation that House members has just voted against hours earlier.

Hillary Clinton has avoided taking a firm stand on a number of other the economic policies that divide the pro-corporate wing of the Democratic Party from progressive activists and unions, including: detailing her views on Wall Street regulation (i.e. Dodd-Frank and bank reform) and tax reform; whether to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour; her position in the battle between teachers unions and school reform advocates; whether she thinks the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is a good idea, and whether the U.S. should allow construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. On other issues (such as social issues, and ones that usually divide Republicans from Democrats) she has opined on immigration, voting rights, gay marriage and equal pay for women. (Bravo Madame Secretary, bravo! But what about all the other issues? After decades in politics, do you still need more time to form an opinion?)

In her speech last Saturday, Hillary was only pandering to the Warren Wing of the Democratic party, knowing there has been a groundswell for more progressive and economically populist ideas, not pro-corporate "third way" ideas like hers of the past. It was almost funny and pathetic and pitiful (all at the same time) to hear Hillary say, "Prosperity can't be just for CEOs and hedge fund managers, democracy can't be just for billionaires and corporations" — when that is exactly who she and her husband have been catering to for decades — and they are still catering to them (especially with their foundation and in their speeches).

Hillary Clinton — a member of the top 0.10% — chastising those in top 0.01%. (With a wink and a nod?) It's was ludicrous. When was the last time she has ever proposed, endorsed, sponsored or co-signed any bill or legislation that would raise or eliminate the cap on Social Security taxes, or to tax capital gains the same as wages, or to close all the loopholes for corporate tax dodgers? Simple answer: Never.

But the people who were there to hear Hillary's speech must be living in Limbo, because they all cheered for her — as though they believed her — the same way they believed Obama before he pushed for the TPP trade agreement. Hillary's audience had cheered her the same way Republican audiences cheer their candidates when they make proposals to cut their Social Security benefits. It's ludicrous.

The New York Times noted that the new economic agendas proposed by liberal/progressive groups like the Center for American Progress in its "Report of the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity" and the Roosevelt Institute’s "Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy" (put together by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and others) calls for substantial changes in tax, spending and trade policies. Polling data suggest that the approach to tax reform in both those reports have substantial public support. A Gallup poll found that those surveyed agreed 63-to-31 that “money and wealth in this country should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people."

But who sincerely believes that Hillary would ever make that sort of commitment to reversing income and wealth inequality in the U.S.? Just like President Obama's pro-corporate "third way" agenda has been coming unraveled, Hillary's is also being exposed for what it really is. And it's not what little is left of the middle-class that inspires her. Like others before them, it's all about the top 0.01% — those who are invested in and run those multinational corporations that wants more of these horrible trade agreements — and who have been greatly pushing for MORE income and wealth inequality.

After the Great Recession — with a further decline in the middle-class, moving more into the working poor — after all these years, most of our politicians still favor big business and big banks over average workers. All except people such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. It turns out that even most of Obama's "Hope and Change" was just more of the same old bull$hit we've been hearing for years (with the same old lies just being told with a brand new twist).

David Geffen, once a good friend of the Clintons, said of Hillary in an interview with Maureen Dowd at the New York Times in 2007: "Not since the Vietnam War has there been this level of disappointment in the behavior of America throughout the world, and I don’t think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together ... The Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling."

It's been 8 years since that interview and when she ran against Obama. Did Hillary really "evolve" all that much since that time?

The Democrats Wall of Shame ...

The 14 Democrats in the Senate who voted to fast track TPP:

Ron Wyden (OR) who also voted for the NAFTA and CAFTA

Bill Nelson (FL) who also voted for the CAFTA

Maria Cantwell (WA) who also voted for CAFTA

Patty Murray (WA) who also once voted to double the number of H-1B visas

Dianne Feinstein (CA)

Claire McCaskill (MO)

Heidi Heitkamp (ND)

Michael Bennet (CO)

Jeanne Shaheen (NH)

Tom Carper (DE)

Chris Coons (DE)

Tim Kaine (VA)

Mark Warner (VA)

Ben Cardin (MD)

The 28 Democrats who voted for fast-track in the House's first vote last Thursday — plus 3 others who didn't vote:

Comments

"Corporate America and Wall Street are going to bring that bill [TPP] back to the House next week. I would hope very much that Secretary Clinton will side with every union in this country, virtually every environmental group, many religious groups, and say that this TPP policy is a disaster, that it must be defeated, and that we need to regroup and come up with a trade policy which demands that corporate America start investing in this country rather than in countries all over the world. So I look forward to working with the secretary on this issue. There is no question in my mind, and I think the minds of most Americans, that what our trade policy has been for many years is to allow corporate America to shut down plants in this country, move abroad, hire people at pennies an hour, and then bring their products back into the United States. It is a failed trade policy, and I would hope that the secretary joins Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, and the vast majority of Democrats in the Congress in saying, 'No, we've got to defeat this piece of legislation.' "

I'm sure she is not wanting to piss off the corporate big buck donors who run politics, but the real issue is they are going to try to bring the bill back this week and pass it. I've seen this before, you think you're safe, a miracle has happened and then we get a bait and switch just a few days later.

More later, unreal cough Progressives voted for this turkey.

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She just came out, subtly on how TPP is a bad deal for U.S. workers. Problem is, she's saying they need to negotiate the "best deal"....well, letting multinationals rule the world and trade cheap labor ain't no deal and of course the devil is in the details.

Personally her track record implies she would be tougher than Obama on trade but how tough, unknown.
I doubt she would go as far as Bernie Sanders would of course.

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Submitted by David E.H. Smith (not verified) on June 15, 2015 - 1:25am

Why Clinton will continue to prevaricate on
TPP, TTIP & Global Treaties/'Arrangements’;
Final Round?; TPP Done Deal, Congress Just Needs a Bunch of ‘Incentives’ (Secret Goodies from Taxpayers & ‘Considerations’ from those ‘Willing’ to Pay).

Should Congressmen & Parliamentarians Have to Sully Their ‘Beliefs’ & Sales Pitches with ‘Sordid’ Facts that Come from Actually Reading & Understanding Global Treaties/’Arrangements’? Should They be able to ‘Sully’ Others, or, Should They Only be able to Give Us the Facts so ‘We’ The People can Draw our Own Conclusions?
And, if they didn’t Read the Treaties, then Who Developed the Treaties & thus, Who Is our ‘Contact’ Person that We can ask Our Questions?
2 Republican Senators Admit that They Have read the TPP.
Zero Canadian Admissions.
Congress/Parliaments; Deluded, or, Deluding; 'IGNORAMUS et IGNORABIMUS' (I do not know & I will Not Know)?

Is the secrecy surrounding the TPP & the flurry of Global Treaties/'Arrangements' greater, or, less than the secrecy that surrounded The Canadian ‘Cultural Genocide’; Corporate Canada & The Canadian Establishment Still Resolute, Without Remorse & Misleading other Treaty Signatories? As Pres. G.H. Bush said re; the NAFTA ‘dispute resolution’; ‘Well, you should have known…’

Corporations Cut Costs & Dramatically Increase flat Profits by Not Suing each Other & by Suing the Little Guy (via ‘your’ Gov’t.) who’s ‘Guilty’ even Prior to Tribunals & All of the Time.

If Not 'Treason', then, there are very compelling arguments for concluding that the corporations, whether they be, foreign, domestic, &/or, a blend, that do not respect the 'lesser' jurisdictions, ie. individual provinces, territories, states, or, municipalities, are not good corporate citizens of the host countries & thus, can be treated as 'persona non grata'.

Global Treaties/’Arrangements’ with their Secret ‘Death-Star-Chamber’ Tribunals that The Global (non BRICS) Corporate Economy is in the Process of Secretly Passing will Finally Legitimize its Ability to secretly move money around, ie. ‘launder’ without Fear of Legal/government Regulation; ie. It’s their Own Jurisdiction & they Insist that you Pay for it & Not them.

Will TPP be Okay if ‘US’ corporations can Prove that they Won't Benefit from Partnerships that Try to Disguise that Corporate USA is Circumventing Other ‘Lesser’ Jurisdictions (State/Municipal)?
ie. Corporations Need Proof of Non Circumvention of 'Lesser' Jurisdictions, or else, 'Non Good Corporate Citizens', & thus, 'Persona Non Grata'

What is Governors’ Rationale for not Defending Taxpayers; States Colluding with Feds?

Corporate America’s Last Chance to Legitimize their Fleecing the Little, harmless Guy (95% - 99% of U.S.) Before Tanking the Global (non BRICS) Economy? Exploitable ‘Vulnerabilities’, Holes & Back Doors to Close.
Can ‘your’ Federal Reps Willingly Answer ‘your’ Questions below If They haven’t Read the TPP & other Global Treaties Just Ask them ‘For the (Your) Record’ & then Share Their Inability with Others.
Don’t Forget to Demand Your Money Back for ‘Supplementing’ Fed Rep’s Wages & Future Considerations at Incompetency Tribunals.
How many ‘Preferred’ Shares are You Selling Your Right to Sue The Global Corporate Economy for?

Global Treaties Not about How Much Trade, but, How to & Who to Trade with to 'Undermine' AIIB.
Shifting Costs to harmless Non Shareholders to Inflate ‘Profits & Dividends’.
Is it Time to Cool off the 'Stockbrokers' again; Buy Gold?
TPP & Global Corporate Treaties/’Arrangements more about Tort ‘Abolishment’ than Tort ‘Reform’?

But, If Not PUTIN; 'The WHITE KNIGHT', then Who Do YOU Want to Bankroll the Saving of the harmless NON shareholders of the World from Fast Tracking TPP's, CETA's (TTIP) Secret 'Death-Star-Chamber' Tribunal Penalties?
Will Iran, China, the Muslim World, et al, Support Putin in Suits?
How about Warren Buffett, &/or, the 'coveted' Hong Kong investor, et al?
***
FULL Articles, see; davidehsmith.wordpress.com
***
Please consider sharing the enclosed information & questions with 10 friends who will share it with 10 others...

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At the Washington Post Larry Summers says that losing the Asian TPP trade agreement "would strengthen the hands of companies overseas at the expense of U.S. firms. Ultimately, having a world in which U.S. companies systematically lose ground to foreign rivals would not work out to the advantage of American workers."

Questions:

1) Have past trade agreements worked primarily to the advantage of American workers?

2) Can anyone name just EXACTLY who these foreign rivals are that Larry Summers speaks of?

3) Can anyone tells us just EXACTLY how U.S. companies are currently struggling to compete against foreign companies?

4) Aren't most of these companies who want TPP mostly "multi-national" corporations — and sometimes have people from several different countries sitting on their board of directors?

5) Many times don't these corporate executives also sit simultaneously on other board of directors for other multi-national corporations, and may be competing against themselves?

6) With all the mergers and acquisitions, couldn't these companies also be competing against their own subsidiaries, rather than some mythical foreign rival?

Larry Summers also says that the current global economy "has supported the greatest economic progress in the history of the world in emerging markets and is working spectacularly well for capital and a cosmopolitan elite that moves easily around the world. But being pressed down everywhere are middle-classes who lack the wherewithal to take advantage of new global markets and do not want to compete with low-cost foreign labor. Our challenge now is less to increase globalization than to make the globalization we have work for our citizens."

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WikiLeaks added fuel to the fire by publishing documents on two agreements. On the TPP, the leaked text showed Big Pharma using TPP against global health and specifically targeting Medicare. In a fact sheet distributed in response to the revelations, Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines Program said the text raises critical questions.

The other Wiki leak was of the much less well known Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). TiSA is the largest treaty, involving 50 nations and “services” that include private services like financial services; public services like the Postal Service and education; hybrid public-private services like health care and individual services like accounting, which make up 80% of the US economy.

These trade agreements are made worse by their secrecy and the Fast Track law — and the trade deals written by corporate lobbyists only benefits a very few. According to Oxfam, the richest 1% are on pace to control more global wealth than the rest of the 99% combined by 2016 — and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping.

According to Bloomberg, one billionaire sees the wealth gap fueling social unrest, and said tension between the rich and poor is set to escalate as robots and artificial intelligence fuel mass unemployment: “We cannot have 0.1 percent of 0.1 percent taking all the spoils. It’s unfair and it is not sustainable.”

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They are pulling a bait and switch. They act like it has failed so all of the protestors stop, go home, stop calling, etc. Congress then tells constituents they voted against the bill but in truth the second time around they voted for it.

Classic bait and switch and that's probably what is going on.

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House passes trade authority bill - CNNPolitics.com: (CNN)The House on Thursday voted to advance legislation to give President Barack Obama fast track authority to negotiate a mammoth Pacific trade deal, reviving the prospects for Obama to achieve a key element of his agenda. The bill, known as TPA, passed by a razor-thin 10 vote margin, with 28 Democrats joining all but 50 Republicans to send the bill to the Senate. The Senate is expected to vote next week on the legislation, when it is also expected to take up a trade assistance measure aimed at winning over Democrats in a separate vote. Thursday's vote came less than a week after House Democrats, in a stunning rebuke to the President, torpedoed the legislation by voting down the trade assistance bill that was tethered to TPA. Now, House and Senate Republican leaders will look to pass both components in separate votes to give Obama the authority and confidence to negotiate a free trade agreement with a dozen countries on the Pacific Rim.

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John Boehner (R-OH) received $5.3 million for a “yea” vote and was the highest paid legislator.
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) received $2.4 million for his “yea” vote.
Paul Ryan (R-WI) received $2.4 million for a “yea” vote and came in at the third highest paid legislator.
Pat Tiberi (R-OH) follows Paul Ryan, coming in the fourth spot having received $1.6 million for his “yea” vote.

We also have Democratic heros...

Joe Crowley (D-NY) received 1.3 million for a “yea” vote and only $72,550 for a “nay” vote and he still voted against it.
Patrick Murphy (D-FL) received 1.1 million for a “yea” vote and only $213,360 for a “nay” vote and still voted against it.
Richard Neal D(MA) received $1.1 million for a “yea” vote and a mere $47,625 for a “nay” vote and still voted against it.

And we have Republican heros...

Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) received $541,746 for a “yea” vote and no money at all for a “nay” vote and he still voted “nay!”
Andy Harris (R-MD) received $254,803 for a “yea” vote and no money at all for a “nay” vote and he still voted “nay”.
Thomas Massie (R-KY) received $250,328 for a “yea” vote and no money at all for a “nay” vote and he still voted “nay.”
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) received $180,832 for a “yea” vote and no money at all for a “nay vote” and she still voted “nay.”

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Watch it folks, they are going to try to get the public's attention elsewhere then secretly pass this bill. The walking dead isn't just a TV show, Congress does it all of the time with agendas demanded by corporate interests.

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Here is Roosevelt Institute Senior Economist Adam Hersh's testimony before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific as part of a hearing on "China's Rise: The Strategic Impact of Its Economic and Military Growth" ---

"The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has less to do with freeing trade, creating jobs, raising wages, or rebalancing geo-politics than it does with rewriting the rules of global trade and investment to favor big businesses at the expense of almost everyone else in society. These rules do not embody economic principles of open competition so much as the preferences of industry lobbyists that had the best seats at the U.S. Trade Representative’s table. The outcome is an agreement that fails to address America’s economic needs and geostrategic goals. Problems with current U.S. model for trade policy do not end with TPP. A multitude of agreements are underway under the same basic template (TTIP and TISA). I will make two points today:

1. The most fundamental element of national security is a strong national economy, and TPP would weaken our economic base.
2. TPP fails the geostrategic rationale for checking China’s rise.

From his conclusion: "Getting to a deal that serves more than the narrow interests of powerful corporations, their CEOs and shareholders will require Americans be willing to walk away from the agreement we have now."

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